


old friends, new problems

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Near Miss AU [9]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:36:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Buttons is good at playing it cool, even when his former best friend who dropped off the face of the earth seven years ago walks back into his life.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Series: Near Miss AU [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735408
Comments: 31
Kudos: 57





	old friends, new problems

**Author's Note:**

> This shares a lot of its dialogue with Bullseye chapter 6, because it's Benny's POV of that chapter. Also, it's angsty as heck because as cool as Ben plays that reunion, he is a Wreck and so is Kath so. Enjoy :)

Ben has been looking forward to tonight for a while. He’s back in Chicago for a few weeks, staying at his parents’ house, and he’d ventured into the old group chat to make plans with his high school friends for the first time in a _while_. He doesn’t get home much, and he’s not in the best touch with anybody anymore, so catching up should be fun.

Spot and Race are already there when Ben arrives, and he gets them talking about their son which could have easily taken over the whole night if Romeo and Specs hadn’t arrived and cut them off. Crutchie arrives not too much later, arm-in-arm with one of the college exes who Ben recognizes on sight but doesn’t know very well. Two more guys that must be after Ben’s time arrive not long after, and then –

“We’re just waitin’ on Jack and his fiancé and the girls,” Race says. “Count on _them_ to be late.”

Crutchie rolls his eyes. “You guys could’a come with Jack and Davey, you know, maybe they’d’a been here already.”

“Jack takes a hundred years to get outta the house, and Dave’s even worse,” Spot says, “like we’d put up with _that_ when we could be enjoying a night out.”

“Speak of the devils!” Race says.

Ben sees Jack working his way over, trailed by a guy a little taller than him who must be the fiancé. Davey.

He’s on his feet, one hand out for Jack’s fiancé to shake and his mouth ten steps ahead of his brain when he realizes who Jack’s _Davey_ is. “Holy _shit_ , Dave Jacobs? Is that you?”

“ _Benny_?” David replies. He sounds tense, and Ben can hardly blame him. It’s been a while. _Breathe, Ben. Play it cool_.

Still, for all the tension washing over Ben, too, he can’t resist launching himself at David for a hug. “Aw, man, Dave! I haven’t seen you in _years_ , where have you been keeping yourself?”

“Here and there,” David says. As soon as Ben releases him, he steps sharply back toward Jack. “You know.”

“Hold up, hold _up_ ,” Ben says. The reality of that has just clicked. “You _are_ the new boy toy, aren’t you? How the hell did you meet Jack?”

“Bumped into him on the street outside his kid’s dance class,” Jack says. “You two know each other?”

“College,” says David, low and shaky. It cuts right through Ben to hear him sound like that; David must be a mess right now. He’s been ignoring Ben for – for a while, presumably because Ben is tied up with the absolute shit show that was their senior year, and here’s Ben standing in front of him, trying to play normal.

If Ben didn’t also feel like _absolute shit_ right now, he’d be fighting a strong urge to comfort David. Not that David would want that, anyway.

“Oh my god, how is Leah?” Ben asks, almost despite himself. “She’s gotta be, what, six now? Seven?”

“She’ll be seven in February,” says David. _Seven fucking years._

Ben lets out a low whistle. “Shit, man, it’s already been seven years since we graduated. That’s wild, ain’t it?”

“Wild,” David echoes.

Ben feels something like his legs are going to give out, so he sits back down. He watches Jack and David settle on the other end of the table, with David wedged between Jack and Race.

Race frowns at David for a moment before shifting that frown to Ben, who forces himself to smile back. Conversation moves on, and Ben relaxes. Across the table, he can see David relaxing too.

Poor guy’s never been great at hiding how he’s feeling.

“Oh, hey, the girls are here,” Romeo says.

“Fucking _finally_ ,” says Albert, who Ben has now been reintroduced to.

Ben jumps up again, because he’s sure he hasn’t met any girls of Jack’s so he might as well assume to introduce himself. The redhead looks an awful lot like Kate, but she can’t be, can she?

“Hey, I’m Buttons, I dated Jack in high school.”

“I’m Sarah, junior year of college,” the brunette says, shaking Ben’s hand.

“Kath, I – oh.” The redhead freezes, taking Ben in. She’s gone very, very pale, and her eyes flick toward David before she speaks again. “Hi, Benny.”

“It _is_ you,” Ben says. He looks from Katherine to Davey as well. He can hardly believe it. “Lordy, never thought I’d see the two’a you in the same place again.”

“Benny,” Katherine says, her voice low, “could you –“

“Wait, Buttons, how do you know Kath?” Romeo cuts in loudly, his head tipped inquisitively to one side.

“She’s a college bud,” Ben says, frowning. He looks from David to Kate again. “Did they not –“

David cuts him off. “Benny.”

“Shit, Dave, I’m sorry,” says Ben. He’s missing something, he knows he’s missing something. If David and Kate are talking again, why wouldn’t their friends _know_ they’d have a college friend in common?

(If David and Kate are talking again, what is it that’s stopping David from talking to Ben?)

Race whispers something to David, too low for Ben to hear. David nods, and Race’s eyes go wide, and it looks like he reaches for David’s hand under the table.

David stands up, moving over toward Ben and the girls. “Katie, I texted you, did you not see?”

He’d tried to warn her Ben’s here. Whether for her sake or his own, Ben isn’t sure.

Katherine shakes her head. “I must’ve missed it.”

“I’m missing something here,” Ben says, trying not to let too much hurt creep into his tone.

“You’n me both!” calls Albert.

“Ben, we’ve told everybody that we met when Kate met her wife,” says David. He gestures to the brunette. “Sarah, here, is my twin sister.”

“Shit, sorry.” It’s all falling into place – their friends must not know about Kate and David’s past, and Ben being here and knowing them has probably ruined that.

Everyone is watching them. There’s this odd moment of tense silence before any of them speak again. David stares at Jack for a moment before breaking the silence.

“Kathy and I met in college,” David says. “We don’t like to talk about it because she _knows Leah’s mother_ and I think understandably that’s not something I feel comfortable bringing up.”

Ben catches onto what David is trying to tell him _instantly_. It’s a confirmation of what he was already starting to suspect. His gaze shifts from David to Katherine and back again, and he nods. “Right, okay. Sorry, guys.”

“You didn’t know,” Katherine says. “Hey, how long are you in town? We’re getting together with Bill and Darcy soon.”

“Couple weeks,” Ben says. “Be good to see the guys again.”

“For sure,” says Katherine.

Ben nods. He’s still in touch with Bill and Darcy, but it’s not the same and the difference hangs over them unacknowledged but suffocatingly present every time they talk. Before he can stop himself, he blurts, “I’m glad to see you two are – are good again.”

“It’s taken a long time,” David says quietly. He pats Katherine on the shoulder. “I’m gonna step outside for a minute, I need some air.”

He walks away.

Jack jumps up to follow him almost immediately.

Ben feels like he’s going to throw up, so he sits down and concentrates on his water.

Katherine and Sarah find seats, and Ben can’t help but notice that Katherine doesn’t look so hot either.

A few minutes later, Race gets up with David’s coat, which he’d left on the back of his seat. Race comes back. Jack and David don’t.

_Seven goddamn years_.

They’ve been not speaking almost twice as long as they were friends.

So why does it feel like Ben can’t breathe?

He tries to be normal and go along with his friends’ shenanigans but he’s honestly just dying to get home and curl up in his childhood bed and try to wrap his head around how fucking weird tonight has been on his own. He can see it in Kate’s eyes, too.

_Let_ Kate be uncomfortable, though.

This is all her fucking fault.

\--

Lunch with the old New York Crew goes great, actually, weirdly great. It feels really natural, despite the fact that the five of them haven’t been in the same room since college.

Ben almost bursts into tears when David shows off some pictures of Leah – at a dance recital, on the first day of school, at the museum decked out in dinosaur gear, all arm-in-arm with Spot and Race’s son Frankie. She’s grown so much and she looks so much like David it’s a little silly, although the spray of freckles across every inch of exposed skin is all Kate.

It feels like yesterday that Ben was holding her on the couch, making fun of Darcy’s social skills and blaming the baby.

But it wasn’t yesterday.

It was _seven fucking years ago_.

Ben’s heart breaks a little when their little crew breaks up after lunch, because he knows that whatever they say this is probably the last he’ll see of them for a while. It’s easier not to talk, especially when the person you’re not talking to is your former best friend and you risk digging up a lot of pain sorting through the whole thing.

He’ll take what he can get.

(There’s a lot more he’d like to say to David, because he misses David a lot more than he misses the others. He’s not ashamed of that at all, either, because David was his best friend and they were closer than Ben has ever been with anyone else in his life, and David didn’t ever _really_ say goodbye.)

Ben isn’t expecting to hear from David again. So when, a few days after their lunch with Kate, Bill, and Darcy, he gets this text:

_From: David_

_Hey I know I said it when we hung out with Kate and the boys but I’m sorry_

_You were my best friend and I just dropped out of your life and you deserve better than that_

_I’ve missed you a lot and I really regret how I treated you, I hope you can forgive me._

He actually drops the plate he’s washing.

He’s out of his parents’ house and in line at Starbucks before it occurs to him to, like, actually respond.

_To: David_

_Holy shit._


End file.
